Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Press button, get banana

cliffski

I’ve been playing the star trek online beta (let’s just say I won’t be buying) and I also not long ago experimented with farmville, for research purposes (far too cute  a game for me). I am not a fan of these sort of games, in fact, they depress me…

MMO’s in general (not Eve) and many facebook games annoy me because they seem designed by business types who want to maximise player-time and revenue, rather than real fun. There seems to be a tendency for business types to equate an ‘addictive’ game as being ‘good’. Not fun, enjoyable or rewarding just ‘addictive’ will do.

We are at the very very early stages of research into how people react to games. 50 years ago, I could watch you through one way glass playing a game or watching TV, and make notes. I could maybe ask you subtle questions about your experience, and do some guesswork to interpret the real answers.

These days (if I wanted to) I could log every mouse movement, every delay, every button click, every action, and analyse you along with thousands of other players to work out all kinds of subtle effects.  It’s theoretically possible for a game to auto-adjust its gameplay to maximise revenue, and player time. This isn’t commonplace, but if people arent already working on it, I’m amazed.

Yet this saddens me. I play games for fun, to feel like a President or a Starship Captain. I don’t play games just to kill time or spend money. In short, the aims of the more cynical game developer (Get them to keep playing, tell their friends, and spend money) don’t marry up with my aims (have fun!).

Right now, it’s fairly easy to look at farmville and see it as a cynical viral marketing/push-button-get-banana business, that I stop playing the minute I see how shallow it is. But in 10 years time will it be so easy? I saw a furniture companies ad earlier today that was targeted directly at me, based on items I’d looked at days before on their website. Will Farmville IV be so perfectly targeted, so acutely balanced based on 50,000,000 playthroughs, that my brain is just incapable of letting me stop playing?

I don’t buy anywhere near as many games as most game designers. I get halfway through the demo and find myself having an internal conversation that starts “Am I having fun right now?” and the answer is often no. I might be wanting to see what item I unlock next, or what happens when I reach the next level (often nothing special), but is the actual process, the actual journey fun? often no.

I am not aiming to make addictive games, or viral games, I’m trying to make fun games. They probably aren’t as profitable (nowhere near as much), but it makes me feel better. You press a lot of buttons in GSB, we don’t always give you a banana, but I hope the button pushing was fun in itself.

10 thoughts on Press button, get banana

  1. I think there will always be room for games like yours, after all, you are already enjoying a niche that isn’t filled by large game publishers and if they drift further from your aims, it’s only increasing the niche

  2. I work for a company that makes “games” for Facebook. I do agree with what you say; these aren’t so much games as they are little time wasters that, for some reason, a lot of people enjoy “playing”. Many of them don’t have a real social aspect other than visiting your friend’s farm/room/aquarium and having a nice look around while they’re away.

    However, I think there could be potential in making an actual “game” that is fun for social website junkies to play. Maybe someone will stumble upon your blog and read it and finally something inside them will click. Maybe someone has already taken a step in that direction and I simply don’t know about it. For example, there are some games on Facebook that require collecting cards with stats and using them in battles against enemies or even other players. They have the beginnings of what one could call “gameplay”.

    So I am hopeful that something will come of it one day. Even if it takes a million Farm/Pet/YoVille clones to get to that point.

  3. This is why I read your blog regularly. It’s because you speak a lot of sense! I only wish that there were people in the mainstream games industry reading this and taking note of it.

    There are far too many game developers (or publishers) now that seem to think that good graphics = good game or that they need to make the game nice ‘n’ simple so that everyone can understand it. I’m tired of being nannied through a game. If I wanted to be told exactly what to do I’d read a walkthrough!
    The other thing that bugs me about many modern games is that they do exactly what they say on the tin/box… and that’s it! There doesn’t seem to be the same philosophy as there used to be of including something because it’s really cool even though it doesn’t affect the game.

    But anyway, I’m ranting again.
    Rest assured, Cliffski, your games are fun to play! Keep it up! :D

  4. What you’ve written is indeed all very noble, however you’re games (everyone’s games) must have some level of ‘addiction’ in them, and they do; you say “You press a lot of buttons in GSB, we don’t always give you a banana” – which is the exact same method that slot machines use to draw people in.

    Is it possible that Farmville and others are not ‘addictive’, but are actually fun?

  5. “These days (if I wanted to) I could log every mouse movement, every delay, every button click, every action, and analyse you along with thousands of other players to work out all kinds of subtle effects. It’s theoretically possible for a game to auto-adjust its gameplay to maximise revenue, and player time. This isn’t commonplace, but if people arent already working on it, I’m amazed.”

    OOoooh, I hope someone is developing this. Replace the part where you say “..maximise revenue, and player time.” with “…maximise players’ enjoyment of the game.” and you have a proper good use for such tech.

    Actually, the Left 4 Dead games kind-of do that already via the Director.

    Anyway, TWGs (Time Wasting Games) are really just another example of the sort of games that have always existed since home cartridge systems were invented. The best part about Video Arcades is that most every machine was designed in mind of the fact that if the player feels their token is being wasted, they’ll walk to the next machine and never look back. Certain kinds of genres would never have made it big if Arcades still reigned supreme (can you imagine World of Warcraft playing like Gauntlet?), and vice-versa (Guitar Hero started as a Japanese Arcade game, but this is an exception to the current rule that arcade games which use special peripherals are generally not ported to consoles any more).

    Although the I think the term was invented for the Wii, Shovelware was actually invented in the 1970s with unlicensed Atari cartridges, and eventually led to industry collapse. Fortunately, these online shovelware games are relatively benign and easily ignored with a little willpower. Unfortunately, a LOT of people aren’t discerning enough to realize that the phrase “free online game” generally is only completely accurate about the online part. Or they are deliberately seeking out a way to kill time without having to think about it.

    The audience of Gratuitous Space Battles is simply not the same audience as Farmville.

  7. yeah, I wish all the games were like yours but unfortunately I think those dull repetitive games like Farmville, Cafe World or Pet society seem to appeal immensely to a whole eclectic audience that can include anything from primary school kids to housewives who don’t really want to think much, just do menial tasks, get ‘money’ and buy stuff for their little farm, cafe, pet or what you will.

  8. yes… I know it comes under the heading TWG, but for me its War Metal or nothing on FB (MW has become too micromanaged, commercial and interfeering at level 323ZZZzzzzzzzZ)

  9. In the end the big business IS the big business, their goal was to make money and that is what they are doing, however that doesn’t mean that fun games aren’t still going to be made. The niche will create the games that are unique, and once those ideas catch on the mainstream will emulate them, thus leading to the improvement of the gaming universe in general.

  10. I completely agree… When I was younger it was such a thrill to get the latest game, sit around the console with your mate and have a great time.
    But… now games only seem to be about money. I can’t think of any big money making games companies that take any risks with games. EA for example will quite happy sit and watch small risk taking companies, feeding them tip bits to watch if they die or get fat… if they do create a game that is worth playing and get fat they immediately swallow them whole and go back to making mindless games and farming other companies.

    I think there needs to be a reclassification on what makes a game. To me making a game purely addictive does not make it a game. Why do the brains of the masses fall hopelessly for games that are all about the increasing of numbers? Watching a number increase every few days from mindless dedicated play isn’t fun to me and I don’t see how they can be classed as a ‘game’

    It’s just frustrating that most of these games could be replaced by a single button with your level above and the amount of clicks needed till your next level below and still offer the same amount of ‘gameplay’ – a term that has come to mean the amount of hours you can waste rather than the level of fun the game offers.

    Keep up the good work Cliff. There are still gamers left out there that like to play games for fun.

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